Malang (song)

The production for the song reportedly cost ₹50 million ($853,274)[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] making it the second most expensive Indian music video of all time.[16] It involved the work of 200 professional acrobats[7][8][10][11][12][14][15] who were flown in from the United States for the song.[8][12] The shoot, which took twenty days,[8][11][12] used a set in Reliance Studios which took 2 months to construct.[7][8][17][11][12][14][15] Cirque du Soleil performers were hired to train the two actors in acrobatic performance for a few weeks prior to the shoot, which was done without the use of safety nets or harness.[18][19]

The film's choreography required performer Aamir Khan to spin about 60 times in a minute[10][20] at an elevation of 80 feet.[10][20] As a result, Khan suffered from nausea during the filming and had to be put on medication to combat the sensation.[10][20][21] Los Angeles based airbrush artist Adam Tenenbaum applied Khan's intricate, tattoo-like body paint for the shoot.[22][23] Katrina Kaif's part was choreographed by Shampa Gopikrishna; her sequences took 11 days to shoot.[24]

The song was shot in Mumbai's Film City.[25]

The music video starts with a picture of Aamir Khan and Katrina Kaif. The shot then moves to center around the logo of the song in front of a platform in the shape of Star of David or Star of Goloka[26] decorated with lights. Credits then display the names of the singers, Siddharth Mahadevan and Shilpa, that of the composer, Pritam, and lastly those of the contributing lyricist Sameer Anjaan.

The performance stage is lighted with small green, yellow and crimson coloured spotlights dotting the black background both horizontally and above the platform. The front of the stage is occupied by a water-body, semi-circular structures on two sides flanking the star shaped one in the middle, which holds the performers. An acrobat and a gymnast are at the front of the stage, along with others who are sitting on both sides of the water-body. While Sahir (portrayed by Aamir Khan in the film and music video) is shirtless and in black, Aliya (portrayed on screen by actress Katrina Kaif) wears a white outfit. Sahir enters the stage performing a front somersault while the stage lights up with pyrotechnics. Taking hold of an aerial silk, he glides once over the top of the audience whilst holding a torch with his free hand. Aliya enters the stage from above sitting on an aerial hoop while Sahir dances below, followed by both of them dancing together as well as performing aerobatic stunts in mid air with the support of aerial hoops and aerial silk rigged above. The rest of the video consists of pictures of Sahir and Aliya with the lyrics below, interspersed with a few scenes from the film. The video ends with Sahir throwing his bowler hat towards the screen, which leads to the logo of the film along with the film's release date.[lower-alpha 2]

Both the film's soundtrack and the Malang single received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Critic Rajiv Vijayakar, reviewing the single for Bollywood Hungama, praised the song's Sufi influences and the "full-throated" singing.[31] Joginder Tuteja, reviewing for Rediff.com, described the song as a "love track with a good rhythm" but criticised it for having an uncanny resemblance to another track, titled Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, from a 2007 film of the same name that was also produced by Yash Raj Films.[32] Mohar Basu, reviewing for Koimoi.com, stated "this one is a Thumbs up!" acknowledging Rao's vocals, the grandeur of the music video, the lyrics, and the "sprinkling of Pre-modern Balkan music" that he detected in it.[33]

A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against Yash Raj Films by the Madariyya Sufi community on grounds of "hurting their religious sentiments and defaming their tradition."[6][34]

• Digital Download[5]